The Dawn of Destruction, Chapter Six (Clean)

                   The Dawn of Destruction

Interitus 1 – Book One

            Chapter Six

 

            “Kenny was there! He watched our city’s nameless hero take out the two miscreants of the massacre! He told me that our savior is a tall white guy with an expertise in explosives. That’s why they can’t find the other gunman; he was blown to smithereens!” Janet told her friends.

            The group exchanged uneasy glances as they heard her story, but this was almost always the case; they still loved hearing Janet’s tales regardless of their authenticity. Besides, there was not much else to do while waiting at the train station outside the city in the middle of the night. They patiently awaited the first arrival of the Solar Rail to their region, and as a group of environmentally-minded college students, this was a revolutionary change they could not afford to miss. Midnight was now only a few minutes away; it would only be a few more minutes until the solar-powered train arrived.

            “What’s that, Kenny? You hear the train approaching?” Janet said.

            There was no one in front of Janet. Every time she mentioned Kenny, a brief discomfort overtook the circle of friends. No matter how obvious it was to them that there was no Kenny, Janet simply could not process that her childhood friend was no longer among them. And while they were all peculiar people with tenuous holds on reality, Janet was by far the most unusual.

            “Do you guys remember the girl we saw walking along the railroad? She counted every plank. She was really pretty…” Joel muttered.

            “I haven’t been watching anything but the cosmos, quietly, quizzically, quickly darting between forms and colors; there’s so much in the sky tonight. How could you be so concerned with an outsider, man? She’s not one of us; she can’t see the truths of the universe painted across the canvas like we can,” Roger replied.

            Roger craned his head toward the stars, just as he did in most other moments. In the background, a door creaked open from the dim train station. An elderly man exited and approached the group, though he clearly did not seem thrilled to close the distance between himself and this group of peculiar students.

            “Just so you kids know, there’s a chance the train will be parked here for some time. We’ve gotta check out some complications. Just want to make sure everything’s safe,” he said.

            “That’s fine, we know it takes some time for the system to reenergize. I mean, the sun’s been down for like five hours,” Angelica said.

            “Well, actually recharging it doesn’t take too long. I’m not supposed to be telling you this, but there’s been some evidence of seismic activity in the region, so we’re just gonna wait until it feels safe. I think they’re trying to play it safe, what with everything happening in the city lately. Between that big shooting and those guys firing explosives on the beach, no one wants to take any chances. I’m sure it’ll be over before you even know it,” he said.

            The old man retreated to the train station. Before long, the earth trembled, and then the night roared as a magnificent locomotive approached the small station. Sparks thundered from the tracks as the speeding train came to a screeching halt. The clamor of metal echoed into the starry night.

            “Guys, it’s so loud,” Joel said.

            “But it’s silent now,” Angelica replied.

            “No… I hear it too. Only the external world is silent; try to look inside. There’s something buried in the air. There’s something buried in there! The shadows befell me in this narrow world… come on, come on! Can you not hear it too? It’s all around us,” Janet whispered with terror and intrigue floating off her breath.

            “I think she’s down there,” Joel said, flattening his ear against the ground.

            “Impossible! We watched her walk south toward the city. Why would she be in sub-San Diego? Why would anyone go below when they could soar into the stars instead?” Roger asked.

            “Maybe she lost her wings,” Joel said.

The group of college students began walking toward the Solar Rail as its doors opened for patrons. They could hear light conversation inside the train. When they handed their tickets to the train’s ticket-taker, he smiled and asked, “Where are you kids headed?”

            “I aim for the moon,” Roger said.

            A puzzled expression crossed the ticket-taker’s face. The group of four sat down in their seats and looked out toward the barren landscape. Everything looked so serene that time did not feel wasted in this place. As the four friends settled in, the doors slammed firmly shut. Angelica glanced around, determining that travel would soon be underway, despite the warning of the old man at the train station. As Janet looked out the window, she watched Kenny wave farewell to them, but he was much too busy to join them on this vacation. Janet excitedly waved back to him, and then the wheels finally entered motion. Kenny slowly faded as the train moved away from the station.

            “I guess this means the seismic activity wasn’t so bad after all,” Angelica muttered.

            The hills in the distance and the tracks beneath the train began to pass more quickly with every second; the train reached an incredible pace as it thundered toward the city of Los Angeles. After about two minutes, they could barely see the dim light of the train station. The ride went smoothly for many minutes until several sudden impacts smashed against the train on both sides.

            The locomotive buckled and screeched from underneath; heavy beats repeatedly smashed against the roof. Joel stuck his head out the window to find the source of this intense commotion. To his surprise, the segment of the train that was five cars ahead flew up into the air, and then it smashed against the ground in a rolling explosion of sparks and shrapnel. Steel slams resonated as the next train car smashed into other segments up ahead; the passengers screamed as they realized their fate. However, the shouts and screams and wails were eclipsed by the steel crashes all around them. The sound was amplified by the cackling of flames and the systematic explosions. The train car shuddered around them from the shockwaves of this damage, but the shaking worsened when a tremendous juggernaut machine emerged from underground. Realizing the danger, the four friends snapped out of their stupor and trembled against the floor of the unsteady train.

            Many passengers stared out the window as this juggernaut smashed into the car just ahead of them. As soon as this collision happened, a fiery explosion illuminated the night, and the passengers could finally see the horrible machine that would certainly kill them. It was a long, worm-like entity that seemed somewhere in between a creature and a machine, but as it smashed through the train and sent shrapnel into the sky, the light revealed a series of fast-spinning components on the giant worm’s body. Just a tenth of a second after this flash of light, the mechanical worm charged back into the ground.

            Because the rest of the train still barreled onward, the students’ train car crashed into the burning pile of wreckage which was once the front half of the train. At this time, their train car split apart, and the wheels diverged in opposite directions. The four friends glanced up and watched the other passengers scream; they watched a storm of sparks and shrapnel transform the other passengers into scattered chunks of extremities and organs. Steel was forced across, into, and through the terrified people in their dying moments. Blood sprayed onto the rupture in the tracks on a two-second interval as each successive train car crashed into the wreckage.

            In all of this carnage and fire and scrap metal, only a single person survived. Joel was the only survivor, but he was entranced by the overwhelming pain of steel rods piercing through his slowing chest. As the pain seized his whole body, he peered through the flaming wreckage and saw a familiar girl basking in the rubble.

            “I… saw… you… earlier…” Joel gasped.

            Naomi, who had been searching for a human voice in the wreckage, was delighted as soon as she heard his whisper. She scurried into the overturned container of shredded metal, which was once the train car that held Joel and his friends. As she walked, she firmly pressed her left arm against her chest to block any cinders and windblown ashes.

            “Did you… survive the train wreck?” Joel panted.

            Naomi glanced excitedly at the three steel bars that had pierced through his chest and pinned him to the wreckage. Joel winced as he inhaled because of the metal piercing his lungs.

            “I did, but your condition looks bad,” Naomi said, feigning sympathy.

            “The pain isn’t too terrible… I just hope we make it out. Have you come to help me?” he asked, fighting against his pain to form a smile.

            Naomi said nothing. She reached her hand onto the rod protruding from his right lung. With her black hair covering her eyes, she gave a faint smile and began twisting the rod between her fingers, silently rejoicing as he unleashed a blood-curdling scream. The evidence of this exceptional pain enthralled her; it transfixed her—it was the driving force behind her wretched sense of joy.

After eleven seconds, his screams became monotonous, at which point she quickly ripped the steel shaft out from his chest. His body writhed uncontrollably around the other puncturing rods, but Naomi held him still as she pressed her tongue into the wound in his lung. She tasted his blood on the tip of her tongue. She rubbed it lasciviously in the heart of the bloody laceration, almost as if she were trying to suck out every last drop of bodily fluid. As she thrust her tongue through the incision, the motion both expanded the wound and caused her chest to shake against his waist. Despite his screams of agony, she felt his body respond to this gentle stimulation.

            “I want you to breathe in one more time before I rip out this bar,” Naomi whispered salaciously in his ear.

            Joel struggled desperately while clenching his throat shut. He tried to calm his body into a state of total motionlessness, into a totally sensationless state where he could pretend that there was no excruciating pain. He prayed he would die before he had to breathe, but it was useless. His arms flailed toward the steel protrusion, but Naomi stopped him; her hands pinned his wrists against the chair, preventing any chance of suicide. A bloodstained tear rolled down his face toward his chin as he accepted that he had no choice but to comply. He knew he had to breathe. His inhalation began with a small separation of his lips. The smoky air rapidly dove toward his expanding lungs, but it quickly escaped through the hole in his tattered right lung. Blood squeezed forth from the wound which Naomi had widened with her tongue. The blood then poured back into his lung, leaving Joel in a state of paralytic pain. His breath had done nothing but fill his lungs with blood. He could feel its weight pooling inside him.

            As she watched him squirm in agony, Naomi inched closer to satisfaction. Everything had gone exactly according to plan. As the climax of this torture reached its boisterous conclusion, she ripped the metal from his heart, instantly ending what remained of his life. There was nothing left for her to do but wait for someone else to show up. It would either be emergency response teams, whom she would swiftly and brutally dismantle, or Seth and his accomplice stumbling into the wreckage. After all, it was becoming more common for Seth to respond to small-scale tragedies, and it was long past overdue for Creation to extinguish Destruction. But until someone arrived, Naomi had nothing to do but wait and appreciate the grandeur of her disaster.

            Joel’s hollow eyes stared at the ground. As she gazed upon his body, Naomi decided that he was an attractive young man, and for her, his fatal injuries merely augmented the strength of his allure. The gaping wounds in his chest only amplified the power of his beguile. And although she had ruined her fun by letting the tortured man die, she still drew prolonged pleasure from the injury that sealed his fate. Naomi peered at the laceration which had pierced Joel’s heart; she saw every indentation of the rigid steel through his flesh, and so she inserted her tongue in the wound. It thrust against the bloody mass for moments, but after a short time, Naomi tired of his stillness. She craved the tight, throbbing pressure that only a beating heart and seizing body could produce. In search of this pleasure, she placed her left hand against his head because she meant to reanimate him. With her tongue still in the hole in his chest, Naomi activated the Creation of energy, and his body seized as electrical energy coursed through his body. He soon resumed screaming as forcefully as before, and his hands flailed against her arms and her chest.

            His hopeless pawing felt heavenly to Naomi; the sensation consumed her to the extent that it caused her legs to quiver. As Joel’s arms helplessly flailed across her chest, she accidentally let out a quiet moan. At the same time, the entrancing arrangement of her tongue through his heart brought her to a second and swift burst of pleasure. His convulsing body unleashed a final shriek as a bloody appeal, and then his body fell still once again.

            “Hey! Are you alright? Where are you?!” Seth’s voice shouted across the wreckage.

            Naomi grinned sinisterly, knowing that her baited trap had worked perfectly.

            “Please, help me! My brother and I are trapped in the rubble!” Naomi shouted.

            “Seth, you betta be careful now. We jus’ heard some dude screamin’ they brains out, and then some hoe starts hollerin’? I bet it’s the same person who broke this big-ass train in the firs’ place. I mean, I ain’t no Sherlock Holmes or none of that good shit, with that cheap-ass pipe and tattered hat and British voice talkin’ all proper and bein’ sophisticated and shit, but I’m jus’ a little suspicious,” Phil’s distinct voice traveled across the wind.

            As the two friends argued back and forth in no real direction, Naomi sighed as she understood that she had to accelerate the process. She removed a bell from her pocket, and its gentle ring resounded faintly throughout the field of scraps and wreckage. The earth then began to tremble as an underground force emphasized its approach.  Phil and Seth exchanged uneasy looks because there was no way that this shaking was evidence of anything good.

            And suddenly, an enormous metallic worm erupted through the earth with so much power that it immediately stunned Seth and Phil. The starlight reflected on the chrome shell of the magnificent lifeform; it effortlessly thrust itself twenty feet into the air, and then the creature’s spinning tail pointed to the sky. The ferocious creature dove through the air toward Seth and Phil, while the twelve metal sections which composed it spun so fast that they were practically a blur. A direct hit from this descending juggernaut would instantly crush anyone or anything in its wake.

            Seth determined that he had slightly over one second before the extraordinary behemoth would smash against him, and thus he steadied his hands while Phil prepared to flee. Seth thrust his left hand forward, hoping to Destroy the worm’s rotational, gravitational, and kinetic energy. He planned that after this, his right hand would strike contact with the unworldly being, Destroying it altogether.

But before any of this could actually happen, Phil kicked his foot and tripped Seth. As he suddenly started falling to the ground, the deadly edge of the worm missed by an inch as it barreled into the earth. Shockwaves rolled from the epicenter; the impact threw Phil and Seth away from the worm as it dove underground. The shockwave launched a pulse of sharp metal across the wreckage. As the ground shook violently, Seth and Phil both winced from the pain of shrapnel piercing their skin.

“Yo dumb-ass real stupid sometimes!” Phil shouted.

            “What the hell is wrong with you?! I was gonna Destroy it!”

            “There be knives flyin’ all across its spinnin’ body! I saw them before he start spinning. Yo dumb-ass would be cut to a thousand pieces if I didn’t trip you!”

            Seth and Phil watched with wide eyes as the end of the worm’s tail sank into the ground, but the tremor in the earth did not fade. Seth desperately searched for a sign of the worm or whatever had built it, but he could not find any reason in the fiery piles of twisted wreckage.

About 300 feet away, the steel creature emerged from a toppled railcar full of corpses. However, the worm did not leap or dive; it instead charged toward Seth and Phil in a completely horizontal path, sliding across the Earth’s surface. As it thundered toward them with its mouth open, Seth saw that its mouth was a revolving chamber of steel and slashing blades. In addition, a series of knives covered its spinning shell, just as Phil had mentioned before. It was almost as if the juggernaut had come with a built-in way to protect from the touch of Destruction. This confirmed his hypothesis that the holder of Creation was responsible for this wreckage. However, Seth had more pressing concerns; he narrowed his eyes as the ruthless machines rapidly approached him and his brother.

Seth could only come up with a single action to protect against this attack; he threw his right hand into the dirt and caused an immense crater. It spread through the earth toward the worm from his right hand. And while the worm charged onward at an inescapable speed, it was not fast enough to pass over the crater without falling. Therefore, the worm smashed into the wall of the crater, just slightly beneath surface level, and the impact of this knocked Seth and Phil onto the ground. The creature dove underground through the crater, leaving the two friends to helplessly await its next emergence.

            The enormous worm changed direction as it charged through the underground, reorienting its path so that it could attack from underneath the two friends. However, its blind aim was slightly off; it missed them by ten feet. Seth and Phil, who were still climbing to their feet, watched the metal worm erupt from the earth and launch scrap metal in all directions. As Phil started to back away from this terrifying spectacle, Seth determined the best way to defeat this worm.

            The forces of friction, air resistance, and gravity worked together to slow the creature’s ascent. For a brief moment in the air, the worm moved slowly; its tail’s spinning motion was the only active threat. Seth had guessed that this would happen, and so he had already sprinted toward the worm with his exceptional speed. In mid-air, the worm spun itself so that its mouth pointed toward Seth, but this was exactly what he wanted; Seth jumped off the ground at full force, threw his left hand inside its mouth, and grabbed one of the slashing blades. Before his hand could be torn apart by the contact, Seth slammed his eyes shut and Destroyed its energy. Suddenly, the creature’s tail was no longer spinning. Before the juggernaut had a chance to regain its speed, Seth threw his right hand against it, Destroying it before it could smash him into the earth.

            Seth exhaled as the field of cinders and wreckage finally fell still. Phil rose to his feet and glanced uncomfortably at the carnage around them. He wondered if the worm had done all this damage on its own, though it made sense since the monster was certainly destructive enough to cause a trainwreck. But how would such a powerful creature go this long without being noticed by anyone? There was no explanation, which meant this monster had to be new. This must have been a new child of Creation.

            “Congratulations, Seth Freeman! You did unexpectedly well, but I’m afraid that that is just the beginning,” Naomi shouted to Seth and Phil from the top of an overturned train car.

            As she said this, two bolts of lightning flashed skyward from the plains behind her. As they struck down in a parallel array, two summoning circles spawned behind her in the barren plain, their lights burning against the night. Two familiar creatures emerged forth from the circles and extended into the air to a height of about six meters (20 feet). Two mechanical worm-creatures smashed in through the ground itself, causing the entire area to vibrate once again.

            “Oh… shit, she jus’ went and made two more of them worms!”

            “I knew it was you! Why are you doing this?” Seth demanded.

            Phil watched as his friend’s face transformed from panic to a reserved fury. Seth recognized his predestined opponent from their previous encounters—both on the beach and in the city on a stormy night.

            “Because it’s my right. Because it’s my destiny. It’s a shame that you and I have to be enemies; we certainly could have brought this world to its knees if we were together. So now here I am, forced to take your lives in the rubble and debris of two hundred corpses,” Naomi proclaimed.

            Naomi closed her eyes and pulled all the fingers on her right hand together. An amethyst glow covered her hand for a moment, and then a weapon materialized. A moonlit machinegun, even larger and stocked with more ammunition than Connor’s weapon, solidified on the train car beneath her.

            “Shit, how she even do that? Man, this a freakshow or some shit; we gotta get outta here,” Phil said.

            “Get behind that car!” Seth shouted, pointing to an overturned train car that could serve as a barricade.

            Bullets pierced the air at a rapid speed; Naomi had no reason to conserve her ammo. Although he was only ten feet away from the barricade, Seth knew he would get shot if he tried to cross this distance. In a split second’s thought, Seth pushed Phil forward so that he could make it safely; Phil flew just past the leading edge in the storm of bullets. Seth used the reaction force of this push to spin himself toward the machinegun. He pulled his left hand out in front of him and used Destruction of energy to block two bullets at the same time. He then ducked and ran the rest of the way to the barricade without being shot.

            “I thought you said you was too slow to predict where bullets be headed! You and yo lyin’ ass,” Phil laughed, thrilled at Seth’s success.

            “It’s still true! At least, for normal guns. But the way she designed her weapon was a little too perfect. Her bullets fly too precisely, so I can kinda see the flightpath before it happens,” Seth explained.

            “I ain’t gon’ lie though, she real fine. I thought that same shit when we fought on the beach, but I didn’t wanna say nothin’. Why them sexy bitches always gotta be crazy?” Phil said with a pout as gunshots echoed across the night.

            “Phil, she probably just destroyed a train and a few hundred people! She tried to kill us with giant steel worms, and now she just tried to shoot us,” Seth reminded him.

            “But she still real hot.”

            “She is trying to kill us!”

            “She still fine, though.”

            Seth sighed, though he had more pressing issues than adjusting his best friend’s mindset. After all, the ground and the wreckage vibrantly trembled around them. An enormous worm erupted out of the ground near this overturned train car; it shot into the air with only a small upward jolt. Seth and Phil knew they had to escape immediately; they absolutely could not risk getting hit by the flying worm. As they sprinted toward the edge of the wreckage, the second worm shot up through the earth just a short distance away; Seth and Phil both stopped running immediately.

When the creature landed, it charged over the wreckage and barreled toward the two friends. Seth sighed as he accepted the futility of their resistance. He knew that even if he somehow found a way to beat the monsters, Naomi could effortlessly Create more. Furthermore, as Seth struggled to somehow preserve their lives, countless bullets still fired into the nebula of dust and debris from her machinegun. In addition, even if Phil and Seth could somehow manage to escape this wreckage, there would be nothing left for them to do but die. Naomi would never allow them to cross the plains, which offered no protection from her bullets and her other various creations.